Pubdate: Tue, 13 May 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Page: A6
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Tristin Hopper
Note: with files from Postmedia News

RCMP TO PATROL B.C. NUDE BEACH

VANCOUVER  - Canada's most famous nude beach is getting its own police
detachment of sorts - a pair of RCMP officers posted in a tent.

Nudity, open containers, acoustic guitars and even drug use are still
legal on Wreck Beach, but Mounties say they will crack down on
overdoses and open-air sexual activity.

"There's about 465 stairs to that beach, and that's really the only
point of access unless you come in from the water," said Sgt. Drew
Grainger with the RCMP's University of British Columbia detachment.

Last summer, he said, the police needed to call in a coast guard
hovercraft as often as three times a week to haul away exhibitionists
or belligerent drunks.

"It's an enormous burden on us and other emergency services to deal
with that," he said, adding that placing a seven-day-a-week RCMP tent
on the beach would simply be to let people know what is
"acceptable."

"It's not going to be the arms crossed, sunglasses on, overlooking the
crowd," he said.

Nevertheless, while Wreck Beach veterans do not object to the
occasional RCMP patrol, they insist that the constant presence of
uniformed Mounties will detract from the location's free-and-easy vibe.

"A continued presence gives a non-verbal message that our beach is
unsafe, and our beach is more safe than any other beach in this whole
Lower Mainland," said Judy Williams, longtime chair of the Wreck Beach
Preservation Society.

Ms. Williams suspects the increased police focus can be blamed on the
high-profile case of Alana Thomson, an "obnoxious" 31-year-old who was
issued with criminal charges last years after RCMP officers caught her
selling alcoholic freezies along Wreck Beach.

While other vendors hawk their Wreck Beach wares with a wink and a
nod, Ms. Williams said Ms. Thomson regularly ruptured the silence of
the retreat by screaming out her products like a carnival barker.

The unsubtle approach made Ms. Thomson easy to catch, and the wildly
variable alcohol percentages of her homemade freezies soon had RCMP
worried about beachgoers being sickened by similar homemade
concoctions.

Said Sgt. Grainger soon after Ms. Thomson's arrest, "We don't know
what's in that liquor."

Located adjacent to the University of British Columbia campus on an
isolated sliver of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, Wreck Beach has been
Vancouver's go-to nude beach since at least the 1970s.

It is the beach's reputation for drug use, however, that has led to
clashes with the Mounties.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, RCMP would mount regular raids on the
beach to seize even small amounts of beer or marijuana. Reportedly,
undercover officers would even go nude to mount stings against Wreck
Beach drug vendors.

"We won't tolerate either drugs or booze on the beaches," Sgt. Brian
Muir told The Province after a 27-officer Wreck Beach raid in 1989.

These days, Ms. Williams says her group has a "good relationship" with
the police. A list of "etiquette" suggestions published by the Society
even encourages beach users to call the RCMP to report dogs and "overt
sexual activity."

When Ms. Williams was told of the new plan for a semi-permanent RCMP
tent at the beach, she even received Sgt. Grainger's personal
assurance that any prudish RCMP officers who "turned their noses up
at" nudists would be immediately removed from Wreck Beach duty.

While the Wreck Beach Preservation Society remains opposed to a
semi-permanent RCMP presence at the beach, Ms. Williams said she hoped
it would at least help their years long battle against the scourge of
music-blaring party boats and speeding jet skis buzzing their quiet
enclave.

"If they can do anything to start reducing the threat to public safety
from these jet skis being recklessly operated, we would welcome that,"
she said.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D